St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-30
spector, and Days school library bill, which
must now lay over until Monday.
FREEDOM OF TRAFFIC.

FREEDOM OF TRAFFIC.
President fiilI and Gen, Barrett
| Have u WOrdy Set-eo Over Hixson,s
Bill.
| Freedom of traffic was discussed very
freely by Gen. Barrett of Grant county,
the champion of the Farmers alliance. and
President J. J. He'll, of the Manitoba rail-
way, yesterday afternoon before a meeting
of the senate committee on railroads.
Among the interested audience were ex-
Representative Charles Canning, of Ada
county, vice president of the Farmers alli-
ance and Erick Olson, of Martin county, a
| prominent member of the executive COM
mittee of the Farmers alliance. and at
rather late stage of the talk Ignatius Don
nelly came in and calmly selected a seat
opposite Mr.. Hill. Apparently the Lion
and the lamb" were each lOath to show any
hostility, so Mir. Donnelly sat calmly mute,
| lingering bundle of papers, which he
| finally consigned to his safest pocket. On
this particular occasion Gen. Barret was the
tlion and Mr.. Hill was content to be the lamb.
withal very cunning one. Senator Hx-
| sons bill was the topic. Its provisions are:
Railroads in Minnesota must provide ample
! facilities for transferring cars from one track
| to another Joining, crossing, or intersecting
| tract, railroads to receive and transport
! freight at reasonable rates, over such routes
| as the shipper shall direct, carload lots to De
| transferred from track to track without un-
loading from the cars in which such ship
| ments were first made Refusal or neglect of
| railroad officials to do accordingly is made
miSdemeanor Su ubject to q fine Of FROM 81, 900
| to $4,000 for the first otfenSe. and for eyery
subsequent ofense from 5000 to $I0,O00,r or
Imprisonment in the state pehitentiary for
term not less than six months nor more than
| one year; and for refusal or neglect TO fcoin-
| ply with the provisions of the bill the railway
| company to be fined not less than $1,000 nor
| more than $4,000 for the first offense, not
| less than $4,000 for the second otfense, and
for tue third OfenSe its charter is to be for
felted. County attorneys are to institute and
carry on proceedings in the name and at the
! expense of the state. proceedings to be in
stituted upon information to the county at
| torney, or indictment of the grand jury, and
| all fines accruing from the enforcement of
| such law are to go to the benefit of the
| state school fund.
| The long and short of it is that railroads
are to be required to furnish cars over any
other road. as the shipper may direct, and
this is just what Mr.. Hill objects to. He
| contends that the state has not the power
| to compel one railroad TO lend its cars to
| another, nor to compel the other to accept
stock, chairman of the senate Judiciary
committee, who was present. he was in
formed that the bill is contrary to section
13 OF the bill of rights Of the state constltu-
| ton, which says the state shall not take
private property for public use without just
compensation therefor.
But it was a question of markets with
! Gen. Barrett-Whether Minnesota grain
should 90 to Duluth or to Chicago. and
whether the producer should have the bene-
| fit of cheap rates for the short distance to
| Duinth or eXtortionate ones for the long
| route to Chicago. This was why he wanted
freedom of traffic and freedom of transfer,
the Minnesota people to get the benefit, Du-
| luth to become the
GREAT RECEIVING POINT
and the lakes to become the established
| shipping route. At present. Gen. Barrett
said. the consumer in his locality pays s3
more per thousand feet for lumber Simply
because the lumber must be shipped around
by the way of Minneapolis. He argued
that the proposed transfer system was ab-
Solutely necessary.
Mr.. Hill explain ed that it would be impossi-
BILE to compel two roads to become partners
in business, Or to make each consent without
useless and endless litigation to have the cars
Of one sent over the tracks of the other. No
&
cheap as the Manitoba.
| Senator HiXson recalled the time when in
! Iowa he shipped wheat at IL cents per bushel.
Now he ships wheat at 19 cents per buShel for
| a shorter distance.
| Gen. Barrett had been of the opinion that
! the Manitoba, Northern Pacific and Duluth
/ roads would favor the bill, but he had antici-
| pated opposition from the Milwaukee road.
| He thought it was folly for Minnesota farmers
| to ship millions of bushels of wheat from 400
mil O. n rx-hn he
can be shipped only, 200 miles TO Lake Supe-
! rior. He argued that the state pays uuneces-
| sarily 10 cents for every bushel Of wheat sold;
that the state paid So, 900 600 for the privilege
| OF sending wheat to Chicago instead of
| Duluth.
Mr. Hill explained that the rate now was
7-10. He could produce an abstract of
wheat carried from every station,
which showed that for over s0O0,00C
| bushels Of wheat the Manitoba road received
SSs5.0Oo. He represented road which had
the same capital stock, $50, 600, 600. as it mad
| tive years ago. although it has now 1000
miles OF railroad. and then it had only 900
| miles. This capital stock is the ownership OF
the road, and each stockholder gets divi-
| dend OF per cent. Five years ago when he
| assumed control of the road, at the first meet-
| ing it was decided to -
| CUT DOWN THE DIVIDEND
| from to per ent.~Accurding to the report
| OF the railroad commissioners, the Manitoba
road has given to the people ST. 500. 900 in five
years in reduced rates. Those figures were
| facts, and no man could alter them. The
stockholders Of the Manitoba did not receive
| cent more now tnan five years ago. He ex-
| planned what was the primary reason for Civ
ing reduced rates to grain-more tons Of it are
shipped, occupying less bulk. Men shipping
| or receiving buggies did rot object to being
charged for twice as much weight as the
buggy really weighed, for the reason that the
buggy occupied the same b6lk as twice its
weight in something more solid. Since the
Manitoba people didn't get a cent more than
| FIVE years ago. the only question now was
how to best serve the interests of the public.
Gen. Barrett-Do you best serve the inter-
ests Of the public by running wheat to Chicago
instead of Duluth?
Mr.. HilI-We are fighting that, too.
Senator Durant wanted the discussion
confined to the bill. Mr.. Hill was asked to